Beyond the plate

Fungi washed your jeans

Stonewashed denim gets its worn, faded appearance from a process that, for decades, involved tumbling garments with actual pumice stones in industrial drums. The process was abrasive, slow, and hard on both the fabric and the machinery.

In the 1990s, cellulase enzymes derived from fungi replaced pumice stones in most commercial stonewashing operations. Cellulase degrades the surface cellulose fibres of cotton in a controlled way, producing the same worn texture without the physical abrasion. It's faster, cheaper, and produces a more consistent result. Most stonewashed denim manufactured in the last thirty years has been treated with fungal enzymes. The fungi didn't make the jeans — they finished them.

Without fungi, organ transplants don't work

Cyclosporin A is the immunosuppressant drug that makes organ transplantation viable. Without it, the immune system attacks and rejects the transplanted organ. With it, rejection is suppressed enough for the transplant to survive. It was first isolated in 1976 from a soil fungus called Tolypocladium inflatum.

The fungal contribution to modern pharmacology is staggering: penicillin (Penicillium), griseofulvin (Penicillium), cephalosporin (Acremonium), statins (Aspergillus), and cyclosporin. These are not marginal compounds — they are foundational drugs that collectively represent some of the most significant medical advances of the twentieth century. All from fungi.

Fungi growing toward the reactor

After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, researchers found something unexpected inside the reactor building: black fungi growing on the walls, apparently thriving in highly radioactive conditions. More striking was the direction of growth — toward the reactor, not away from it.

Subsequent research suggested that certain melanin-rich fungi may be capable of using ionising radiation as an energy source — a process called radiosynthesis, analogous to photosynthesis. The melanin absorbs gamma radiation and converts it into chemical energy. Cladosporium sphaerospermum was among the species found. Studies on fungi from the International Space Station have found similar radiation-resistant and potentially radiation-utilising properties.

Whether this constitutes true radiosynthesis — generating usable energy from radiation — is still debated. What is not debated is that these fungi are growing in conditions that would kill almost any other multicellular organism, and growing toward the source of radiation rather than away from it.

Fungi that eat plastic

Pestalotiopsis microspora, a fungus found in the Amazon rainforest, can degrade polyurethane — one of the most common plastics in landfill — and crucially, can do so anaerobically, without oxygen. This means it can function at the bottom of a landfill, not just at the surface where oxygen is available.

Aspergillus tubingensis has been shown to break down polyurethane within weeks in laboratory conditions. Several other species have demonstrated the ability to degrade various plastic compounds. The field of mycoremediation — using fungi to remediate contaminated environments — is young but the evidence base is growing.

Fungi already bioremediate heavy metals. Ganoderma lucidum (reishi) has been used as a biosorbent of copper and chromium. Species of Phanerochaete can degrade creosote, heavy fuels, and persistent organic pollutants. The same enzyme systems that break down lignin in dead wood can, under the right conditions, break down synthetic compounds with similar chemical structures.

The most tested food ever sold

Quorn is a mycoprotein product made from Fusarium venenatum — a soil fungus. It was developed in the 1980s as a high-protein meat alternative and has been described as "probably the most thoroughly tested food ever to appear on supermarket shelves." The testing was necessary because regulators had no prior framework for approving a fungus as a food product — every aspect of its safety, digestibility, and long-term effects had to be established from scratch.

Quorn contains around 11g of protein per 100g in its standard form, with a complete amino acid profile and significantly less saturated fat than meat. The mycoprotein itself is produced by fermentation — the fungus is grown in continuous culture, harvested, heat-treated to kill it, and then processed into texture. It is, at its core, a harvested fungal mycelium. Cultivators will find the production process familiar.

Cordyceps and the Chinese athletes

At the 1993 Beijing National Games, Chinese women athletes broke multiple world records in middle and long-distance running. Their coach, Ma Junren, attributed the performances in part to a training regimen that included Cordyceps sinensis supplementation — caterpillar fungus, a parasitic species that grows from the bodies of moth larvae at high altitude in Tibet and had been used in Chinese medicine for centuries as a tonic for lung and kidney function.

The claims were controversial. Several athletes later tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs unrelated to Cordyceps, and the records were subsequently questioned. But the episode brought Cordyceps to global attention and triggered a wave of research into its active compounds — primarily cordycepin and adenosine — which have since been studied for effects on oxygen utilisation, ATP production, and immune function.

Cordyceps militaris, the cultivated species, is now one of the most commercially significant medicinal mushrooms globally. The wild C. sinensis commands extraordinary prices — up to $20,000 per kilogram — because it cannot be cultivated and must be hand-collected at altitude. The cultivated species is a different organism but produces many of the same compounds.

The only vegan source of vitamin D

Mushrooms exposed to ultraviolet light are the only natural vegan food source of vitamin D. The mechanism is analogous to how human skin produces vitamin D — a precursor compound (ergosterol in fungi, 7-dehydrocholesterol in humans) is converted to vitamin D by UV radiation.

Practically: a portobello or shiitake mushroom placed gill-side up in direct sunlight for 15–30 minutes will produce significant amounts of vitamin D2 — enough to meet or exceed daily requirements. The vitamin D produced this way persists in the dried mushroom for months. This is not a minor nutritional footnote — it means mushrooms are a genuinely useful dietary source for people who avoid animal products and don't get adequate sun exposure.

The ergothioneine antioxidant — found specifically in enokitake and button mushrooms — is another compound that the human body cannot synthesise and can only obtain from dietary sources. We have a specific transporter protein for ergothioneine, which some researchers argue suggests it was a consistent part of the ancestral human diet.

Spores launched at 10,000g

Basidiospores — the spores of gilled mushrooms — are launched from their attachment point by a mechanism called Buller's drop. A water droplet condenses at the base of the spore due to the difference in humidity between the spore surface and the surrounding air. As the droplet grows, surface tension pulls the centre of mass of the spore forward until the drop merges with a water film on the spore and the combined mass is flung outward.

The initial acceleration of this launch has been measured at approximately 10,000g — comparable to a bullet leaving a rifle barrel, though the distance travelled is microscopic. No muscle, no propellant, no mechanical structure. Just physics and water. Once airborne, the spore falls under gravity through the gill space and into the air current below the cap. A single mushroom can release 30,000 spores per second. Over its lifespan a single fruiting body may release billions.

Spores have been found in the upper atmosphere and at the bottom of ocean trenches. Some are viable after millennia. Honey in Egyptian tombs over 3,000 years old has been found still edible — because honey's antimicrobial properties prevent fungal and bacterial growth. The biology of fungi is full of this kind of thing: systems that work through elegance rather than force.